[trans]Gender/Sex Resources lisalees.com/trans/resources.html

I don't do identity politics. You're going to find LBG, T & I all mixed up in my lists, because I believe all people are sexual and gender is simply how we communicate about our sexuality.

I'm no longer able to keep up with all the new trans and genderqueer books, so this is more of a historical record of what I read while I was transitioning, with a few important additions to the 'must read' list. For current titles, please check out the LibraryThing catalogs for my personal library or the office library where I work.
Latest update: 15 September 2007

On this page: must read - general - family/youth - religion - bad for you

Some other pages of mine: fiction (large YA section) - comics

Most of the book titles are links that take you to the Amazon.com entry for that book, which lets you see the cover, description and reviews.

Must-Read Books

This is my 'short list' of useful, thought-provoking books. Beginning ::cough:: with my own book.

Lisa Lees. Fragments of Gender. 2005. Lulu.com. ISBN 1-4116-3711-9. 216 pages.

A collection of my essays and fiction.

Kate Bornstein. Hello Cruel World: 101 Alternatives to Suicide for Teens, Freaks & Other Outlaws. 2006. Seven Stories Press. ISBN 1-58322-720-2.

My personal take on suicide is that though life sucks, it's more interesting than the alternative. That works when I'm not hurting too bad. For the dark times, this little book is a ray of light.

Riki Wilchins. Queer Theory, Gender Theory: an instant primer. 2004. Alyson Publications. ISBN 1-55583-798-0. 170 pages.

Riki goes to the head of my list with this new book, which tries to unravel the Gordian knot of identity politics in the arena of GLBT activism. There's a heavy dose of postmodern theory here, but it's made understandable by examples from Riki's life and from the life of GenderPAC. If you're going to talk or do politics at all in the context of GLBT, queer or intersex issues, you truly need to read this book; it will help you think clearly.

Kate Bornstein. Gender Outlaw: On Men, Women, and the Rest Of Us. 1994. Routledge. ISBN 0-415-90897-3.

Probably my favorite gender book. Kate really makes you think about this thing we so flippantly call 'gender'. Look for a paperback edition with hir added notes.

Phyllis Burke. Gender Shock: Exploding The Myths of Male and Female. 1996. Doubleday. ISBN 0-385-47718-X.

This book is about gender, which is not the same thing as biological sex or sexual orientation, but which is widely believed to be. Burke does an excellent job of exposing the cultural hocus pocus of gender and the enormous damage done to children and families in the name of gender conformity.

Jason Cromwell. Transmen & FTMs: Identities, Bodies, Genders & Sexualities. 1999. University of Illinois Press. ISBN 0-252-06825-4.

A wonderful, myth-shattering, outspoken, truthful, honest, open exploration of the lives and experiences of transmen (and other transpeople). Not quite as good as having a few transmen in your life, but the next best thing. I very much like this book!

Holly Devor. FTM: Female-to-Male Transsexuals in Society. 1997. Indiana University Press. ISBN 0-253-21259-6.

I hesitate to put this book on my 'must read' list because it is so large, but if you are seriously interested in the topic of transsexuality, you really must read this book. Based on extensive interviews from what was until recently an almost invisible population, Devor takes a feminist, sociological look at the lives of transmen.

Alice Domurat Dreger, Ed. Intersex in the Age of Ethics. 1999. University Publishing Group. ISBN 1-55572-100-1.

Intersex as a Social Phenomenon; Living, Learning, and Loving with Intersex; Changing Perspectives of the Clinic; What to Do Now.

----------------. Hermaphrodites and the Medical Invention of Sex. 1998. Harvard University Press. ISBN 0-674-08927-8.

Sex, gender, and sexuality have not always been the supposedly clear and distinct categories currently enforced by our culture.

Anne Fausto-Sterling. Sexing the Body: Gender Politics and the Construction of Sexuality. 2000. Basic Books. ISBN 0-465-07713-7.

An important book for understanding why we think about sex, gender and sexuality the way we do, and why we seem to find evidence to support our assumptions. (See also, "The Five Sexes, Revisited," the emerging recognition that people come in bewildering sexual varieties is testing medical values and social norms, in The Sciences, July/August 2000, Vol. 40, No. 4, pp 18-23, www.nyas.org.)

Matt Kailey. Tranifesto: Selected Columns and Other Ramblings from a Transgendered Mind. 2002. Xlibris. ISBN 1-4010-6489-2.

Matt Kailey is a transman who writes in a very clear and thoughtful style about his experience and about issues that affect all people who have gender issues. I think this is a good book to give to people who are trying to understand why anyone would do this (change 'sex', that is).

---------- Just Add Hormones: An Insider's Guide to the Transsexual Experience. 2005. ISBN 0-8070-7958-8.

Matt Kailey is the about same age as me, and transitioned about when I did, but he went in the other direction. He's a very good writer, and I highly recommend his books to anyone trying to understand what it means to be transsexual.

Kris Kleindienst, Ed. This Is What Lesbian Looks Like: Dyke Activists Take On The 21st Century. 1999. Firebrand Books. ISBN 1-56341-116-4.

It's way past time to drive a stake through the heart of the elitist, separatist, supremacist thought that has characterized too much of gay and lesbian politics at the end of the 20th century. Some of this material dates back to the early nineties, so this book is also a record of a change that is taking place at the grassroots level and only now is affecting 'the movement' in large visible ways.

Julia Serano. Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Feminity. 2007. Seal Press.

The term 'paradigm shift' is grossly overused, but that's what this book is; a paradigm shift in how transwomen write about their own experience. Buy and read Whipping Girl. Now!

Kate More & Stephen Whittle, Eds. Reclaiming Genders: Transsexual Grammars at the Fin de Siècle. 1999. Cassell. ISBN 0-304-33776-5.

A collection of thirteen essays by trans writers who refuse to see gender through male/female glasses and who see much more to sexuality than heterosexism and its homo converse. Yes folks, trans is not simply a bus stop on the route to becoming the man or woman other folks want you to be!

General Interest

These books are good, too, but I suggest you pick and choose according to your interests. So much has been written in the past ten years that it is no longer practical to read everything in print that touches on sex, gender and identity.

Robert Bogdan. Freak Show: Presenting Human Oddities for Amusement and Profit. 1988. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0-226-06312-7.

A social history of the freak show during the period between 1840 and 1940, from isolated touring act to dime museum to circus sideshow. The freak show did not disappear after World War II, of course, it moved on to radio and then television, and still continues in full force, featuring such human oddities as homosexual, transsexual, and intersexed people. (And see my freaks page for more information on this topic.)

Kate Bornstein. My Gender Workbook: How to Become a Real Man, a Real Woman, the Real You, or Something Else Entirely. 1998. Routledge. ISBN 0-415-91673-9.

Now you, too, can deconstruct gender in your own home!

Mildred L. Brown and Chloe Ann Rounsley. True Selves: Understanding Transsexualism For Families, Friends, Coworkers, and Helping Professionals. 1996. Jossey-Bass. ISBN 0-7879-0271-3.

Still the best book on this subject I have seen, at least for straight audiences who have traditional beliefs about male and female. There is a very sensitive explanation of what transsexual people go through while growing up. The coverage of female-to-male and male-to-female is balanced, and this book does not push the "real transsexuals have surgery" line you see in so many publications.

Lily Burana, Roxxie, Linnea Due, Eds. Dagger: On Butch Women. 1994. ISBN 0-939416-82-4. Cleis Press, P.O. Box 14684, San Francisco CA 94114. (Out of print as of June 2000.)

So you think women don't crossdress? That having a masculine side means a woman changes the oil in her own car? You've got a lot to learn, and this is a good place to begin.

Pat Califia. Sex Changes: The Politics of Transgenderism. 1997. ISBN 1-57344-072-8. Cleis Press, P.O. Box 14684, San Francisco CA 94114.

Sex Changes is a readable book that begins the breaking away of transgender theory from the sexology of the straight community and the self-interested analyses of the feminist and gay communities. Califia is not transsexual, but she's a knowledgeable fellow-traveler who doesn't shy away from the sexuality issues, which too many first-person, feminist, and gay accounts do. (Oops! As of 2000, sie is Patrick Califia-Rice, so I guess I didn't have that quite right. :-)

Loren Cameron. Body Alchemy: Transsexual Portraits. 1996. Cleis Press. ISBN 1-57344-062-0.

FTM photographs, graphics, and text combine to make a moving statement. The sections are: Introduction. Self-Portraits. God's Will. Distortions. The New Man Series. Our Bodies. Fellas. Emergence. Duo. Check out www.lorencameron.com for photos and ordering information!

Katherine Connella. Sugar and Spice and Puppy Dog Tails: Growing Up Intersexed, An Intimate Memoir. 2000. Booklocker. ISBN 1-929072-70-8. (Also available on www.katherineconnella.com.)

This is a finely grained and very personal memoir of growing up in the sixties and seventies having an unshakable female gender identity but an apparently male body. Though she had hard times in school and with relationships, attempted suicide, was placed in a mental hospital and treated as a transsexual person, she survived and in fact prospered. The book covers the first twenty or so years of her life, up to when she was able to finally live as a woman. (As of the time the book was written, at age 39, she was just beginning to learn the details of her intersexuality.)

Katherine Cummings. Katherine's Diary: The Story of a Transsexual. 1992. William Heinemann Australia, 22 Salmon Street, Melbourne. (Very difficult to find.)

A very personal and moving story of Kate's life (up to a point; here's a postscript you can read online). If there is a dividing line between first and second wave personal narratives of transsexual experience, Kate's book is poised right at the end of the first wave. This book is hard to find in most parts of the world, but you may be able to get it from the author: kcummings@firstnet.com.au

Leslie Feinberg. Stone Butch Blues. 1993. Firebrand Books, 141 The Commons, Ithaca NY 14850. 607-272-0000. ISBN 1-56341-029-X.

This novel has almost become a cliché for the transgender experience, but it's a damn fine book and well worth reading.

---------- Transgender Warriors. 1996. Beacon Press, 25 Beacon Street, Boston MA 02108-2892. ISBN 0-8070-7941-3.

"I have lived as a man because I could not survive as a transgendered person. Yes, I was oppressed in this society, but I am not merely a product of oppression. That is a phrase that renders all our trans identities meaningless. Passing means having to hide your identity in fear, in order to live. Being forced to pass is a recent historical development. It is passing that is a product of oppression."

---------- Trans Liberation: beyond pink or blue. 1998. Beacon Press, 25 Beacon Street, Boston MA 02108-2892. ISBN 0-8070-7951-0.

"More exists among human beings than can be answered by the simplistic question I'm hit with every day of my life: Are you a man or a woman?" An inspiring collection of talks and interviews and profiles. Please visit www.transgenderwarrior.org, the domain of Leslie Feinberg.

Judith Halberstam. Female Masculinity. 1998. Duke University Press. ISBN 0-8223-2243-9.

If you think the title is an oxymoron, you certainly should read this book. If you're a gender freak, it's a fascinating read, and I suspect an empowering and liberating read if you are struggling with any of the issues discussed. "This book has not only been a philosophical inquiry into the whys and wherefores of female masculinity; it is also a seriously committed attempt to make masculinity safe for women and girls."

Ivan Illich. Gender. 1982. Pantheon Books. ISBN 0-394-52732-1. (Out of print.)

Anthropological, economic, and sociological insights into our changing perception of gender, and the gradual emergence of a genderless economic system.

-------. Medical Nemesis. 1975. Pantheon Books. ISBN 0-394-71245-5. (Out of print.)

"'The medical establishment has become a major threat to health. The disabling impact of professional control over medicine has reached the proportions of an epidemic.' With this opening assertion Ivan Illich launches a devastating analysis into 'iatrogenesis' (doctor-made illness), examining what medicine really does, as opposed to the myth that has been built around it."

Ivan Illich has been a major influence on my thought. Also very much worth reading: Shadow Work (1981), Towards A History Of Needs (1977), Tools for Conviviality (1973), Deschooling Society (1970).

Gershen Kaufman and Lev Raphael. Coming Out Of Shame: Transforming Gay and Lesbian Lives. 1996. Doubleday. ISBN 0-385-47796-1.

A wonderful book, a life changing book, perhaps even a life saving book. Though its focus is people who are homosexual, it clearly spoke to me through my experience of growing up as and living as a person who is transsexual. This book has helped me to understand why I hurt so much, what I can do to transform my shame, and how I can keep from continuing the cycle of shame from generation to generation.

Suzanne J. Kessler. Lessons From The Intersexed. 1998. Rutgers. ISBN 0-8135-2530-6.

The chapter titles are: The medical construction of gender, Defining and producing genitals, Evaluating genital surgery, Questioning medical management, and Rethinking genitals and gender. Lots of personal stories. (I urge any transsexual person who is contemplating voluntary genital surgery to read this book, and Alice Dreger's book, and think about this whole "genitals define who one is" thing.) Kessler also is co-author of the classic, Gender: An Ethnomethodological Approach, 1985.

Lisa Lees. "Transgender Students on Our Campuses," chapter in Working with Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender College Students: A Handbook for Faculty and Administrators. Ronni L. Sanlo, Ed. 1998. Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 0-313-30227-8.

I wrote this chapter during the summer of 1996, based on my experiences at Michigan State University. I still pretty much agree with what I wrote, and I think it is a good book for the target audience to have on their shelves. (The original working title of this book did not include transgender. How things change!)

Gordene Olga MacKenzie. Transgender Nation. 1994. Bowling Green State University Popular Press. Bowling Green OH 43403. ISBN 0-87972-597-4.

A 'sociocultural and sociopolitical' look at how gender nonconformists fare in America. Mostly focuses on 'male-to-woman transgenderists', but most of what is said applies to the entire spectrum and appropriate comments are made in various places. The conclusion is that it is not the individual transgenderist who is sick but it is the culture that is sick by not allowing gender diversity.

Jan Morris. Conundrum: An Extraordinary Narrative of Transsexualism. 1974. Henry Holt. Second edition, 1987. ISBN 0-8050-0361-4. (Out of print.)

A classic. Read it if you can find it.

Zachary I. Nataf. Lesbians Talk Transgender. 1996. Scarlet Press, 5 Montague Road, London, E8 2HN. ISBN 1-85727-008-8.

A great little book. It explains the basics and is full of thought-provoking quotes from people who have been there and done that.

Minnie Bruce Pratt. S/HE. 1995. Firebrand Books, 141 The Commons, Ithaca NY ISBN 1-56341-059-1. 14850. 607-272-0000.

A collection of short essays; a very personal exploration of the meaning and boundaries of gender. Many of the essays are about aspects of hir long relationship with Leslie Feinberg. (I strongly suggest you read Stone Butch Blues and SH/E as companions.) Minnie Bruce has a web page at www.mbpratt.org.

Mark Rees. Dear Sir or Madam: The Autobiography of a Female-to-Male Transsexual. 1996. Cassell. ISBN 0-304-33394-8.

An articulate, sensitive, and very sad account of how it is possible for an out transsexual to be accepted by individuals yet treated like dirt by society as a whole. Born in 1942, Rees transitioned in 1979. In 1994 he was elected as a Borough Councillor by the people amongst whom he has lived all his life. Yet although he completed college, he has never been able to find a career open to him, and has lost jobs and opportunities and relationships innumerable times because of his history.

Martine Rothblatt. The Apartheid of Sex: A Manifesto on the Freedom of Gender. 1995. Crown. ISBN 0-517-59997-X. (Out of print as of June 2000.)

"The apartheid of sex is every bit as harmful, painful, and oppressive as is the apartheid of race. When people are characterized at birth into a sociological class on the basis of chance biology, they will be socialized into a segregated culture. Once they are so socialized, human potential will be repressed. for the mind does not know boundaries except for those imposed upon it from outside. Countless millennia of female oppression and male frustration, of gynacide and warfare, is our legacy of sexual apartheid." A seminal book, so to speak.

Allucquère Rosanne Stone. The War of Desire and Technology at the Close of the Mechanical Age. 1996. The MIT Press. ISBN 0-262-69189-2.

If you are reading this via the world wide web, you should read this book for some of the background on how we arrived at this point, and some thoughts on where we may be going.

Kim Elizabeth Stuart. The Uninvited Dilemma: A Question of Gender. 1991. Metamorphus Press, P.O. Box 10616, Portland OR 97210-0616. ISBN 1-55552-013-8.

A balanced and compassionate and honest attempt to understand and explain the incredibly complex subject of transsexuality. Based on interviews with 70 transsexual people. Anyone dealing with these issues would do well to read this book. The author has no axe to grind, which is unusual in this field.

Caitlin Sullivan & Kate Bornstein. Nearly Roadkill: An Infobahn Erotic Adventure. 1996. High Risk Books. ISBN 1-85242-418-4.

What's this about?  : : snicker : :  Gender, of course, like everything else. It's a novel, so it isn't strictly true, but if you are here, reading my pages, that certainly won't get in your way!

Rose Tremain. Sacred Country. 1992. Washington Square Press. ISBN 0-671-88609-6.

A novel, one of the central characters of which is a female-to-male transsexual. Set in the years between 1952 and 1980, the book I think does a very good job of portraying the existence of an isolated transsexual person. (In this time period we were all isolated.) I like this book because it is not a fairy tale. It includes a number of people who have serious issues in their lives, one of whom happens to be transsexual.

Riki Anne Wilchins. Read My Lips: Sexual Subversion and the End of Gender. 1997. Firebrand Books. ISBN 1-56341-090-7.

Riki is the original in-your-face Transexual Menace. she's written a book that gives the inside story on what it's like to be genderqueer. She doesn't pull any punches, so there is material in this book that will offend some people. There's violence; but crossing the sex and gender lines always invites violence. There's sex; a topic about which too many trans people are silent. And there's politics; of course there's politics.

Family & Youth Books

At long last there are books that place LBGT people in families and that acknowledge that children must deal with these issues in many ways.

Ellen Bass & Kate Kaufman. Free Your Mind: The Book for Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Youth and Their Allies. 1996. Harper Collins. ISBN 0-06-095104-4.

Check out www.free-mind.com.

Marion Dane Bauer, editor. Am I Blue? Coming Out from The Silence. Harper Trophy. ISBN 0-06-440587-7.

An anthology of YA fiction by writers such as Bruce Coville, Nancy Garden, M.E. Kerr, and Jane Yolen.

Mary Boenke, Ed. Trans Forming Families: Real Stories About Transgendered Loved Ones. Second Edition, 2003. Oak Knoll Press, 180 Bailey Blvd., Hardy VA 24101. ISBN 0-615-12307-4.

A collection of forty-two stories from families that contain a member who is transgendered. ('Transparenting' is mine.) Lots of love and wisdom. Highly recommended.

Just Evelyn. "Mom, I Need To Be A Girl." 1998. Walter Trook Publishing, 276 Date Street, Imperial Beach CA 91932. ISBN 0-9663272-09.

A mother's account of helping her transsexual child come to terms with hirself and the world. Too bad it's rare for a child to find this kind of support from a parent.

Mary L. Gray. In Your Face: Stories from the Lives of Queer Youth. Harrington Park Press. ISBN 1-56023-887-9.

Fifteen teens discuss their lives and identities.

Noelle Howey and Ellen Samuels, Editors. Out Of The Ordinary: Essays on Growing Up with Gay, Lesbian, and Transgender Parents. St. Martin's Press. ISBN 0-312-24489-4.

This is not comfortable reading. The confusion, hurt, pain, fear, loss, and struggle comes through very well in these twenty-one essays written by the grown children of GLT parents. If you're a 'child of' you'll find here that others have gone through what you've gone through; if you're a GLT parent, then here's some inkling of what your children may be going through; and if you're one of those people who helps make life a living hell for such parents and children, here's a look at the harm you do.

Kelly Huegel. GLBTG: The Survival Guide for Queer & Questioning Teens. free spirit. ISBN 1-57542-126-7.

Overall excellent, with a superb section on Transgender Teens!

Audre Lorde. Zami: A New Spelling of My Name. Crossing Press. ISBN 0-89594-122-8.

The cover calls it 'a biomythography'. I read this book on the train to Chicago one year. It was the best thing about the trip.

Adam Mastoon. The Shared Heart: Portraits and Stories Celebrating Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Young People. HarperCollins. ISBN 0-06-447304-X.

Photographs, handwriting, and stories of fifty or so young people, including several who identify as transgender and/or transsexual. A very important 'I am not alone' resource for teens and the rest of us, too.

Jeff Perrotti and Kim Westheimer. When the Drama Club is Not Enough: Lessons from the Safe Schools Program for Gay and Lesbian Students. Beacon Press. ISBN 0-8070-3130-5.

This is both a history of successful efforts and a collection of information and suggestions.

Kay Johnston Starks and Elanor S. Morrison. Growing Up Sexual. Second edition. Harper Collins. ISBN 0-673-99417-1.

Intended as a textbook for human sexuality courses, gives a good view of what young people actually learn about human sexuality as they grow up.

Amy Sonnie, Editor. Revolutionary Voices: A Multicultural Queer Youth Anthology. Alyson. ISBN 1-55583-558-9.

Written and visual work from over fifty queer young people, ages 14 to 16, from many backgrounds and identities. Through the pain, hope for the future shines through!

Religion

There is quite a bit more available on this topic than I list here, much of it accepting and affirming. Do check out the Bridges across the dividE web site, and also Steve Schalchlin's Living in the Bonus Round site.

Melanie Morrison. The Grace of Coming Home: Spirituality, Sexuality, & and the Struggle for Justice. The Pilgrim Press. 1995. ISBN 0-8298-1071-4.

Melanie Morrison is a white, lesbian, feminist, Christian minister doing the work she is called to do. She helped found Phoenix Community Church in Kalamazoo, Michigan and now lives and works in the Lansing area, where she is co-director (with her mother, Eleanor) of Leaven, a nonprofit organization providing resources and education for spiritual development, feminism, anti-racism, and sexual justice.

Bad Books

These are bad in the sense that they need to be read with a 'heads up' if they are read at all. They are not useless, but if you are trying to sort through your own trans issues you need to be careful with these.

Bernice Hausman. Changing Sex: Transsexualism, Technology, and the Idea of Gender. Duke University Press. 1995. ISBN 0-8223-1692-7.

There is a good historical overview of the (short) history of endocrinology and reconstructive surgery. There is good coverage of the bias exhibited by many therapists and doctors that the product of 'sex change' must be a heterosexual male or female at the extreme of the gender continuum (butch or femme). There are case histories from the early part of this century. There's also a bunch of feminist gobbledygook you may find offensive.

I mostly agree with Hausman's analysis, yet I also know that she misses the point about being a trans person. As an openly 'transgendered transsexual' person, I deal with many of the issues discussed in the book on a daily basis. I'm somewhat baffled by the extreme emphasis placed on external genitalia by Hausman and so many others. I honestly have no trouble with the notion that some men have a vagina and some women have a penis. Of course this is not, for me, an abstract notion; I know quite a few such people.

Diane Wood Middlebrook. Suits Me: The Double Life of Billy Tipton. Houghton Mifflin. 1998. ISBN 0-395-95789-3.

Billy Tipton was a renowned musician who lived as a man for 55 of his 74 years. For 40 of those years Tipton traveled and worked closely with a large number of entertainers in the Midwest. Most people, including his wives and three adopted sons, did not and do not question the gender identity Tipton lived around the clock. Tipton left no memoir and, so far as anyone knows, never discussed his feelings about gender identity or sexuality. He led what many trans people will recognize as the life of a transman, but Tipton did not himself speak to this issue. If you are mainly interested in Billy Tipton, not gender identity, this may not be a bad book, but most FTMs and transmen are not pleased with this book. I hope one of them will write a different biography one day.

J. Michael Bailey. The Man Who Would Be Queen: The Science of Gender-Bending and Transsexualism. 2003. National Academy Press. ISBN 0309084180.

Faddish pseudo-science that's likely to do a good deal of harm if taken seriously. The only reason to read this is to be aware of what Bailey says in case it's used against you.

Janice G. Raymond. The Transsexual Empire: The Making of the She-Male. 1979, reissued 1994, with new introduction. Teachers College Press. ISBN 0-8077-6272-5.

A vitriolic feminist attack on the concept of transsexuality. The useful questions posed by Raymond have now all been repeated elsewhere, so I would not recommend that any transsexual person expose themselves to the bigotry and hatred in this book. Raymond grossly misunderstands what it means to be transsexual, and sie fails to see that sie is if anything more a product and perpetuator of sex-role stereotyping hirself than the people against whom she rails.

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